Nation pays tribute to martyrs Hemant Karkare
No one is indispensable, but some rare people come quite close to it. Hemant Karkare, the chief of Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), who laid down his life fighting one of the worst terror attacks on the Indian soil, definitely falls in that category.
Born in Madhya Pradesh, Karkare studied mechanical engineering in Nagpur and worked at the National Productivity Council and Hindustan Lever before making it to the prestigious IPS in 1982.
While posted in Nagpur he fought the Naxalite forces and earned a reputation of being an officer who is courageous as well as having a sound head on his shoulder. In several missions undertook by him, he used not only his brawn, but his superlative brain to achieve success.
Even when fighting the Naxalites in Chandrapur forests near Nagpur, he took an interest in driftwood, discovered artistic shapes in them and converted them into wooden sculptures.
The last time the people of the country saw him was while working with his men near the VT Station, the target of one of the attacks. He was shown wearing a shoddy helmet. A little later, a policeman lowers a flimsy bulletproof vest over his shoulders, one that was obviously of little protection when those fatal shots were fired at him.
The previous evening, TV channels had “breaking news” that he had received a fresh death threat from some unidentified caller, apparently in connection with the Malegaon probe. But he took it very lightly.
But the real question is how long will we afford to lose the precious lives of these talented cops like Hemant Karkare,Vijay Salaskar or MC Sharma who lost his life fighting terror in Delhi’s Jamia Nagar couple of months back? READ MORE
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